Instant Developer Cloud triples the speed on iOS

The advantages of hybrid mobile applications are well known: they’re cross-platform, pretty simple to program if you know the Web technologies, and have lots of plugins for accessing the native part of the device.

However, there’s also a weak point: performance. It’s not so much for calculations as for managing the user interface. Achieving a User Experience that’s similar to the native experience can be complicated when interfaces grow full of animations and content.

That’s why what we’ve managed to achieve in the new version of Instant Developer Cloud is so important: general use of the modern WkWebView in place of the more dated UIWebView on iOS terminals. The results are clear: the execution speed of JavaScript triples, and the fluidity of the user interface improves noticeably.

And there’s more: although WkWebView has been available for more than two years, neither Cordova nor other frameworks for hybrid applications have been able to offer it for general use because of the limits set by Apple, as we can read in the Cordova bug tracker:

It’s impossible to set the focus on a field programmatically.

SQLite is not available through WebSQL.

It’s impossible to access the application file system.

You can’t make cross-origin calls.

There are compatibility problems with certain basic plugins.

But now, Instant Developer Cloud users can overcome these obstacles. All you need to do is download or update InstaLauncher to version 1.6, enter the settings for the app, and deselect the Force UIWebView option. Then relaunch the app.

The same options are available at the build server level: you can select which WebView to use, whether for iOS or for Android, with a simple checkbox.

Now all that’s left to do is impress our users with applications that are better looking and more fluid than ever.